Failing Stafford school not progressing well enough, says Ofsted

Silkmore Community Primary School was rated inadequate by Ofsted last year and – in a fresh report – inspectors have revealed that a high proportion of pupils are still working below the standard expected for their age,

Inspectors also said that recent training for teachers at the Exeter Street school is also not making enough of a difference and pupils are not making sufficient progress in maths.

The report said that the national assessment data published following the inspection in March showed that the standards attained by pupils at the end of key stages one and two were low, with pupils leaving year six more than two years behind other pupils nationally in reading, writing and mathematics.

In the new report, inspector Jacqueline Wordsworth said: "The work seen in lessons and in pupils' books indicates that a high proportion of pupils are still working below the standard expected for their age.

"The quality of work shows that there is much to do to improve pupils' writing and mathematical skills and speed up their rate of progress.

"This is reflected in the school's latest tracking of pupils' progress which shows that the rate of improvement is not fast enough to ensure that the gap between current levels of attainment and the levels expected is reducing.

"Recent training to help teachers with the teaching and assessment of reading is not making enough of a difference.

"This is because leaders are not checking on the impact of the training often enough.

"When checks are made there is insufficient focus on whether there has been an improvement in pupils' learning or whether teachers are implementing correctly what they learned in training."

Inspectors said because of very poor teaching in the past, pupils have many gaps in their learning.

The report said that when teaching writing, teachers did not pay sufficient attention to helping pupils to write neatly or to using grammar, punctuation or spelling correctly.

But it said that reading corners in all classrooms had been improved.

The report added that since the previous monitoring visit, the deputy headteacher and the teacher responsible for special needs had left the school and an acting deputy headteacher from another school is on secondment to the school until May.

Ms Wordsworth said: "The headteacher and other leaders have yet to demonstrate that they understand what needs to be achieved to establish firm foundations for school improvement."

She added: "Having considered all the evidence I am of the opinion that at this time, the school is not making enough progress towards the removal of special measures."

Ben Adams, Staffordshire County Council's cabinet member for learning and skills, said the authority is working closely with the school and, where needed, commissioning support through Entrust, to provide advice and specialist help where it is needed and we hope they can make great strides quickly.

He added: "With schools responsible for their own success, it is up to governors to walk the tightrope between wholehearted support and being a critical friend.

"Not only do we support Governors in practical ways to understand the information before them, but the council closely monitors schools' performance data and raises concerns directly with individual chairman of Governors if necessary.

"We also expect that as more schools take control of their own future they will form strong partnerships with others to bring better performance and share senior management teams, costs and best practice."